Two front-runners emerge for coaching job in Pittsburgh!

The Pittsburgh Penguins are one of the NHL teams looking for a new head coach ahead of the 2025-26 season and some of the buzz has been around captain Sidney Crosby and his role in the search. However, the team’s superstar spoke about this earlier this week and stated that he is not involved in the Penguins’ search and that he does not have a say in who the next coach is going to be.

“Because, ultimately, I’m a hockey player,” Crosby explained to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe.

“I’m not out there coaching games. I am not a manager.”

And so we do not know what he may think of the two front-runners, as David Pagnotta recently reported that the Penguins have spoken with D.J. Smith about their head coaching vacancy, and have also looked at Mitch Love.

It has been confirmed that the Los Angeles Kings have given Smith, who is their associate coach, permission to pursue head coaching opportunities across the league this offseason and the Penguins are reportedly in the mix. Smith has been with L.A. for just over 15 months. The Kings hired him in February 2024 after the Senators fired him as their head coach two months prior. In 317 games coaching the rebuilding Sens, Smith compiled a 131-154-32 (.464) record. He’s still looking for his first playoff participation as a head coach.

When it comes to Love, he is a Washington Capitals’ assistant coach. While the team was active until last night in the postseason, they’ve granted Pittsburgh permission to interview Love and the Pens have already spoken with him. Team insider Josh Yohe of the Athletic has labeled Love as being onto the “short list of favorites for the job.”

Besides Smith and Love, there haven’t been many other candidates firmly linked to the Penguins’ open position, perhaps besides Rock Tocchet, who was announced on Wednesday as the Philadelphia Flyers’ new head coach.

Let’s see if other front-runners emerge for the vacancy in Pittsburgh in the coming weeks…